Plus, receive recommendations and exclusive offers on all of your favorite books and authors from Simon & Schuster.
0:00 /
Table of Contents
About The Book
A compelling global exploration of nature and survival as seen via a dozen species of trees that represent the challenges facing our planet, and the ways that scientists are working urgently to save our forests and our future.
The world today is undergoing the most rapid environmental transformation in human history—from climate change to deforestation. Scientists, ethnobotanists, indigenous peoples, and collectives of all kinds are closely studying trees and their biology to understand how and why trees function individually and collectively in the ways they do. In Twelve Trees, Daniel Lewis, curator and historian at one of the world’s most renowned research libraries, travels the world to learn about these trees in their habitats.
Lewis takes us on a sweeping journey to plant breeding labs, botanical gardens, research facilities, deep inside museum collections, to the tops of tall trees, underwater, and around the Earth, journeying into the deserts of the American west and the deep jungles of Peru, to offer a globe-spanning perspective on the crucial impact trees have on our entire planet. When a once-common tree goes extinct in the wild but survives in a botanical garden, what happens next? How can scientists reconstruct lost genomes and habitats? How does a tree store thousands of gallons of water, or offer up perfectly preserved insects from millions of years ago, or root itself in muddy swamps and remain standing? How does a 5,000-year-old tree manage to live, and what can we learn from it? And how can science account for the survival of one species at the expense of others? To study the science of trees is to study not just the present, but the story of the world, its past, and its future.
Note—species include: * The Lost Tree of Easter Island (Sophora toromiro) * The coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) * Hymenaea protera [a fossil tree] * The Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) * East Indian sandalwood (Santanum album) * The Bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) * West African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora) * The Tasmanian blue gum eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) * Olive tree (Olea europaea) * Baobab (Adansonia digitata) * the kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra) * The bald cypress (Taxodium distichum)
The world today is undergoing the most rapid environmental transformation in human history—from climate change to deforestation. Scientists, ethnobotanists, indigenous peoples, and collectives of all kinds are closely studying trees and their biology to understand how and why trees function individually and collectively in the ways they do. In Twelve Trees, Daniel Lewis, curator and historian at one of the world’s most renowned research libraries, travels the world to learn about these trees in their habitats.
Lewis takes us on a sweeping journey to plant breeding labs, botanical gardens, research facilities, deep inside museum collections, to the tops of tall trees, underwater, and around the Earth, journeying into the deserts of the American west and the deep jungles of Peru, to offer a globe-spanning perspective on the crucial impact trees have on our entire planet. When a once-common tree goes extinct in the wild but survives in a botanical garden, what happens next? How can scientists reconstruct lost genomes and habitats? How does a tree store thousands of gallons of water, or offer up perfectly preserved insects from millions of years ago, or root itself in muddy swamps and remain standing? How does a 5,000-year-old tree manage to live, and what can we learn from it? And how can science account for the survival of one species at the expense of others? To study the science of trees is to study not just the present, but the story of the world, its past, and its future.
Note—species include: * The Lost Tree of Easter Island (Sophora toromiro) * The coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) * Hymenaea protera [a fossil tree] * The Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) * East Indian sandalwood (Santanum album) * The Bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) * West African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora) * The Tasmanian blue gum eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) * Olive tree (Olea europaea) * Baobab (Adansonia digitata) * the kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra) * The bald cypress (Taxodium distichum)
About The Author
Dana Barsuhn, Huntington Library
Daniel Lewis is the Dibner Senior Curator for the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in Southern California, and a writer, college professor, and environmental historian. He writes about the biological sciences and their intersections with extinction, policy, culture, history, politics, law, and literature. Lewis holds the PhD in history and has held post-doctoral fellowships at Oxford, the Smithsonian, the Rachel Carson Center in Munich, and elsewhere. Lewis also serves on the faculty at Caltech, where he teaches environmental humanities courses, as well as at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He is also currently serving a five-year term on the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission, as a Bird Red List Authority member. His previous books include Belonging on an Island: Birds, Extinction, and Evolution in Hawai’i and The Feathery Tribe: Robert Ridgway and the Modern Study of Birds.
Product Details
- Publisher: Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster (March 12, 2024)
- Length: 304 pages
- ISBN13: 9781982164058
Browse Related Books
Raves and Reviews
“Daniel Lewis blends a profound sense of wonder with hard science and a global perspective in offering the histories of a dozen extraordinary species. . . . Lewis is a skilled writer, and it would be hard to overestimate his bonafides in the biological sciences. He locates their intersections with extinction, policy, politics, law, culture, history and literature in lively, often eye-opening prose. The author could not have chosen a group of trees more biologically and culturally fascinating than this variously endangered dozen. Each has captivated the human imagination for millennia, even as we have drastically reduced their numbers. And each, he says, has a crucial story to tell.” —The Post & Courier
“Daniel Lewis’s informative, engrossing, often poetic Twelve Trees is a wonderland of fascinating facts. . . . Twelve Trees is also an engagingly written experiential memoir of the author’s quest to learn more about the trees he views as crucial to human life. . . . Lewis leads readers on an awe-inspiring tour of a dozen trees. . . . Twelve Trees offers extensive insight into the ways in which humans and trees are interconnected.” —BookPage
“In Twelve Trees, Daniel Lewis travels the world to meet a dozen unique specimens with the aim to learn more about how trees live and communicate—and what their connected lives might tell us about how we live ours. Brimming with awe for the overstory, the book is also a reminder that life unlike our own is not only mysterious—it’s precious.” —LitHub
“Enchanting . . . The plentiful trivia fascinates, and Lewis has a talent for complicating conventional wisdom. . . . The result is a loving paean to all things arboreal.” —Publishers Weekly
“The environmental historian offers vivid portraits of 12 trees from around the world—including ebony, olive and sandalwood—scoping out the threats they face and the extraordinary ways they are able to adapt.” —The Guardian, “2024 Books to Look Out For”
“This engaging heart-and-mind approach to educating readers about trees reveals that they too have lessons to offer to the world. . . . Lewis exhorts readers to try to see the world from a tree’s perspective and to practice empathy. Nyquist’s exquisite illustrations complement and enhance the book’s gorgeous world.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“Daniel Lewis, author of The Feathery Tribe, could not have chosen a group of trees more biologically and culturally fascinating than this variously endangered dozen. . . . He offers a meticulous survey of these species, as well as their personal histories and importance. . . . He deals with the complexities of conservation efforts (and resistance to them) with an even hand, and the book is as rigorous as it is readable. . . . A well-informed, staunch defense of trees’ capacity to multiply biodiversity and support life on Earth.” —Kirkus Reviews
“This captivating exploration of nature and survival through the lens of twelve remarkable tree species takes readers on a global journey, delving into the science, history, and cultural significance of each tree. From the majestic redwoods of California to the ancient bristlecone pines of the Great Basin, engaging prose and thorough research show the vital role trees play in our world and the urgent need to protect them. A compelling and enlightening read for anyone passionate about nature and conservation.” —Arlington Magazine
“Twelve Trees is a remarkable adventure that takes us from the heights of the redwood canopy to the craters of Easter Island and the depths of the Congo Basin, using cutting-edge science and personal stories to explain the ways these incredible trees shape our world.” —Eric Rutkow, author of American Canopy
“Daniel Lewis channels the wisdom of twelve of the planet’s most eloquent teachers—the oldest, the tallest, and even the extinct—to share their deep time lessons with us. With the precision of a scientist, the skill of a historian, and the voice of a poet, Lewis speaks for the trees. If we listen, we will grow to love these twelve trees deeply, and come to recognize how closely our own lives and fates are linked to theirs.” —Melanie Choukas-Bradley, Author of City of Trees and A Year in Rock Creek Park
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Twelve Trees Hardcover 9781982164058
- Author Photo (jpg): Daniel Lewis Dana Barsuhn, Huntington Library(0.1 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit
